


The Culling of Humanity

by Nightfeathers



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2019-09-02 00:32:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 9,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16776043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightfeathers/pseuds/Nightfeathers
Summary: What if Alucard couldn't do it? He joins his father instead, but his human heart is harder to turn than he thought.Ratings and warnings are predictive for later events. I'm not sure what all might happen so they may change later.





	1. Prologue

The time came when he could have ended it. Alucard has the broken post of his bed in hand, and his father seems capable only of staring at him as if waiting for the end. He lifts it, has the point against his father's chest. One push would have done it. Maybe two at the most. But he remembers...  
 _  
Sitting at that little desk, learning how to write, and his father bends over to show him the letter again. Adrian copies it. They laugh over something. He doesn’t remember what but his father hugs him after._

_The scene changes. Alucard is younger now. He lies in bed, his face stained with tears. He’s just learned that people can be cruel to anyone different. His back still bares the bruise of the rock that struck him. His father made certain no more reached their target and carried his son home after._  
  
The stake in his hand shakes. Alucard looks his father in the eyes. He can see the man he grew up admiring. The one he wanted to be like when he was grown himself. His eyes fill with tears and the post clatters against the hard wooden floor. “I can’t.” He whispers. 

Vlad lets out a sigh but pulls his son into his arms, covers him in his cape. He can hear the running behind them both. When the sword comes swinging at his head he catches it between two fingers. It holds even less danger than the one his son swung at him what feels already like a lifetime ago. “It’s alright.” He answers his son and seizes the Belmont by the throat. When the Speaker threatens to attack, he holds the Belmont before him. If she attacks, she’ll take her friend with him. She lowers her hands and Vlad smiles, just a little, in a grim triumph he is no longer sure he really wants.

Alucard can’t even look at them. His friends. The people he trusted. The people who trusted him. He wanted to do this, for them and everyone else. His mother’s wishes still call to him, but he can’t murder his own father. So he stands there with his face turned away. “Don’t kill them. Please.”

And so they live. They’re locked away in the castle’s dungeon instead. Dracula’s plans have changed, just a little. He cannot condemn his son, the only surviving piece of his wife, to starvation and death. So Hector will get his wish. Instead of a genocide, it’s to be a culling. The humans will be put into breeding farms, their population reduced. 

Alucard, now Adrian again, tells himself he still saved their lives. He prevented them all from being exterminated. Humanity will live as a species. It’s more than they could have expected before. He tells himself it’s enough, and he adapts. He learns to embrace his father’s world. Dracula wants him to kill the speaker and the last of the Belmonts himself.


	2. Torment

Months pass. Trevor and Sypha are locked up in a dungeon in the deepest parts of Dracula's castle. Adrian knows exactly where they are. He hasn't seen them since his father ordered him to kill them and he, sobbing, couldn't do it. The disappointment in his father's gaze was not nearly so bad as what he saw in theirs, but at least for now they lived.

Even without that one final test passed, Dracula becomes his teacher again. This time the lessons are cruel, no laughter for his successes. Adrian learns to kill others. Learns to block out the cries and the pain. It's only his human heart, he tells himself, fighting for a people who would kill him as easily as they killed his mother.

In time the war moves outward. Outposts are established in other castles farther from Dracula's keep. Adrian is entrusted with one of these. He has a mirror back to the main castle but once his place in this part of the world is established he rarely uses it. It's easier to be here, away from what had once been his home.

The humans nearby are either enslaved or killed. Some, which could dubiously called a lucky few, are assigned to work as servants in the castle. Some are sent to the stables, now turned into human breeder farms to keep the population alive. The rest are locked away as food. 

It's easy to fall into a routine. His father ordered him to claim more of the land here. Adrian could see the disinterest in his eyes when he gave those orders but he bowed just like any other general should and agreed without question. Winter had come when he finally moved on the land. 

Now the beginnings of spring filled the air. Adrian stood in the window facing the courtyard. Outside birds were singing their song. He turned away, neither hearing nor caring for the sound. The bedroom before him was sparse, containing a sturdy wooden desk with paper and quills and pots of ink stowed in little racks to keep them from easy spilling, a large four poster bed with the curtains removed, a chest of clothes, several floor length candelabras, and a set of manacles recently added that dangle from the beam in the ceiling. The manacles lay empty for now. 

Already dressed, Adrian strode out to the hall where several succubi are lingering in his doorway. They perked up at his appearance. One smoothed the scrap of cloth she calls a dress. Another who hasn't bothered with clothes walked towards him with her hips swaying enticingly. He held up a hand to stop her. "Not right now. I need another prisoner brought up. Something sturdy this time. The last one didn't last nearly long enough."

"Of course my lord." The succubus smiled sweetly, her fingers dancing on his chin until he pulls away.

"Don't touch me, Lilith. I'm not in the mood." Adrian growled. "After you bring it up I want you to stay in my chambers." He turned on his heel and went back inside, slamming the door behind him. 

Fifteen minutes of pacing a hole in the floor later, he opened the door to the sound of footsteps. Lilith stood before him holding one of the male prisoners. She dragged him inside and shut the door behind, handing the human over to Adrian. "Will this one do?"

Adrian nodded tightly and took the prisoner's arm. There was little fight left in this one. It made no difference. Adrian grabbed his hair and yanked his head to the side, sinking his fangs to the gums in the man's throat so he can feed. 

It's not out of necessity. Sometimes he feels bloated with blood like a tick about to pop, but it's never enough. It can't drown the voice in his head that insists everything about this place is wrong. No matter how much he drinks, a part of him remains human. He envied Belmont the escape offered by drink, and felt pain shoot through his chest as the name crossed his mind. He sank his teeth in again and felt the prisoner squirming faintly in his grasp. His eyes closed and all he could see are blue eyes squinting in disgust at what he's become. When the human's body fell, tears had begun to flow down his cheeks that he wiped away before he turned around. 

"Alright." He nodded at the succubus. She walked to the chest while he stripped off his coat and shirt and leaned against the post of the bed. The first crack of the whip left a red streak across his back. The second was harder and he could feel it split the skin. Pain filled his mind, silenced the voice. With every gash opened in his back he can feel it driving out his doubts, replacing the images that torment his mind's eye with the purity of white hot pain. 

When he finally fell to his knees, Lilith stopped and took the whip with her for washing. Adrian stayed there by the bed, eyes squeezed shut. The wounds would heal soon enough, especially after his meal, but until then his heart ceased it's torment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updating when I can, sorry for the wait! Things will get better for him, I promise. <3 I know where I want to go with this, but it may take a while to get there.


	3. One Extra

Over the next day and a half, an influx of new prisoners was shipped in from Dracula's castle via mirror. Adrian wasn't there to oversee it all, but he made certain the incoming prisoners were moved on to the proper locations. The healthiest ones went to the breeding farms while the rest refilled his own stocks for feeding.

For part of his day he was in a room with a handful of his father's generals. Most were replacements for the ones he, Sypha, and Trevor had killed and they were fully aware of how they'd gotten to their current positions. It made dealing with them tedious, between the suck ups and the fuck ups. 

"How can you not be able to route out a bunch of human rebels in a town the size of a mule's ass?" Adrian demanded. "They're peasants! With pitchforks! Burn the damn town down around them!"

The hooded figure before him waved her arm. "I have tried that!" Morta hissed, pulling the black cloak back from her face. Half of it was a mass of scars that were still angry red against her pale skin. "Many of my people were killed when they retaliated. They burned the keep and nearly killed me along with them!"

"Ah, if only I were so blessed!" Adrian shoved his hair back and paced the floor. 

That started bickering among the rest. Gossom, the grey haired man who'd taken over Carmilla's estate after Dracula finished punishing her, insisted that he could do a better job. Gethin and Idris, who shared a territory as well as everything else with one another, argued for trying to capture the rebels. Mehira agreed but not at the cost of more vampire lives. Adrian thought her too soft to run a territory but so far she'd held onto it on her own.

"Enough!" Adrian ordered. "I don't give a fuck how you do it. I don't care if they die. Just get rid of them or send them to the prison. Do something besides talking for once in your damn lives!" He stepped out and slammed the door shut. When one of the castle servants approached him he massaged the bridge of his nose. "What do you want?"

"The new prisoners have been put away but, um..." The girl stammered. "Well there was an extra one."

Adrian snapped his gaze up. "What do you mean an extra one?"

"We were supposed to receive forty five. We got forty six." She explained. "And one of the guards said I should come tell you because..."

"Because he thinks I'll bite his head off for giving me bad news?" Adrian guessed. "Why the hell shouldn't I have trouble here too... Extra prisoners." He shook his head. "Alright, thank you. Go do whatever you're supposed to be doing." He waved his arm and she ran off. _Like a frightened little mouse_ he thought. But he couldn't really blame her for that. 

Marching past the hall and down to the prisoner's holding area, Adrian looked them over carefully. "I don't suppose whoever among you decided to sneak into prison would like to be even more helpful and tell me why?" He asked the group at large, not really expecting an answer. 

At the end of the row one of the prisoners caught his eye. The man would have been fairly tall if he'd been standing straight. His hair was matted but the color was just the right shade of brown. He was covered in bruises too, evidently where some guards had decided they didn't like his face which was now swollen and discolored worse than the rest of him. Adrian felt a pang of familiarity and reached through the bars. Everyone else pressed back. This one held still. 

"You lookin' f'r a piece o' me too?" The words were distorted but the challenging tone was unmistakable. 

Adrian felt his heart clench up in his chest. He froze for a moment and then called the guard over. "I want this one. Open the cell." The order was obeyed without question but when the prisoner was brought out Adrian took his arm at once instead of letting him be put into manacles. "Nevermind that, I'll take him myself." He growled, pulling the man along by one arm. When the prisoner stumbled too much Adrian put him over his shoulder and carried him the rest of the way. Up in his bedroom he looked at the manacles, considered using them, but it was clear this one wasn't going anywhere any time soon so he laid him on the bed instead. "Alright. You want to tell me what the hell you're doing in my prison, Belmont?"


	4. Admissions

"Well?" Adrian glared down at him. "I assume you weren't looking to be turned into food by one of my guests." 

"Lookin' f'r you." Trevor replied, looking up with one good eye. He didn't look exactly pleased to have found his target, but he didn't try to kill Adrian either. In fact he laid back on the bed and let out a huff. "This's nice."

"Why the hell were you looking for me?" Adrian demanded. When no answer came he leaned over the hunter. "Belmont?" A soft snore was the only reply he got. Adrian sniffed a bit in disgust. He was not happy to see Belmont again, especially not here. He went to the door, reached for the handle, and stopped to lean his forehead against it instead. If he said anything Trevor would be killed. However he'd managed to escape, this would be the end of it. 

Adrian's hand went to his chest as he felt his heart clench at the idea. That damn human heart of his again. His nails dug into the flesh through his shirt, drawing blood. Pain helped him focus. Clearly he wasn't going to be able to have his former friend executed. He locked the door instead, for all the good it would do. Then he took a seat at his desk to wait while Trevor slept as if he hadn't a care in the world. 

\--

Some hours later Trevor woke up and automatically reached for a weapon that wasn't there. Adrian shook his head. "You're still here, Belmont, and just as foolish as ever. Did you come all this way to take a nap in my bedroom?"

Trevor winced as he sat up. "I came all this way to find out what the hell happened." He put a hand to the bruises on his face. 

"I put something on those while you slept. The swelling has gone down." Adrian walked over to stand in front of him. "You know exactly what happened, Belmont. I changed my mind. That's all."

"No you didn't, or Sypha and I wouldn't have been rotting in your father's dungeon all this time." Trevor glared. "You would have just killed us if you really believed his cause."

"Maybe I'm just hoping to have more Belmont blood to feed on later." Adrian snapped. 

"Well you're doing a piss poor job of that if that's the case. I've been alone with Sypha the whole time." Trevor snorted. 

"Sypha is perfectly capable of breeding." Adrian answered.

"If she wanted to maybe, but she doesn't. Not in a dungeon and frankly I am not raising any kid of mine in a dungeon either." Trevor scowled. "And that is not what I came here to talk about. You didn't just change your mind, Alucard. You were just as hell bent as the rest of us on killing Dracula and now, what? Suddenly you two are the best of friends coming together to wipe out humanity? I don't buy it."

"We are culling humanity, not wiping it out." Adrian spoke as if to a dull witted child. "My father changed his plans after I joined him. He doesn't want me starving to death."

"Oh well what a wonderful fucking change." Trevor rolled his eyes. "People are dying, Adrian. While you're sitting here with your silk sheets playing your father's games, people are being murdered in the streets!"

"Don't shout at me, Belmont! I know exactly what's happening out there!" Adrian laughed. "I'm the one planning it!"

"What the hell does that mean?" Trevor narrowed his eyes. 

"My father hasn't been interested in this war in months. I took over. I coordinate our forces." Adrian shook his head. "It's my war now."

"Then why the fuck haven't you stopped it!" Trevor jumped up, managing to remain on his feet despite the wooziness in his head. 

"I can't!" Adrian shouted back and dropped his voice. "Even if I wanted to, and I don't! The generals would never agree to stop now. And my father least of all. He wanted them all gone. Every last human on the face of the earth! For me he's allowing some to live. That has to be enough!"

"It fucking isn't!" Trevor hissed. "You're putting people in cages, forcing them to have children that are going to be taken as soon as they're weaned and killing the rest. I saw vampires take a woman's baby from her arms and kill it right in front of her Adrian! You can't tell me the man I met in Gresit is okay with that!"

Adrian's eyes slid down and he turned away, clutching the scar on his chest again. "I have to be." His voice was softer, almost lost.

"Why? What the hell is so important that you're suddenly okay with children being murdered?" Trevor pressed. 

"Because I couldn't do it." Adrian admitted softly. "In my bedroom. My father... came back, just for a moment. I saw him. My father, not... not Dracula." He spat the name. "I had a stake to his heart. I could have ended it. But... he was my father again, and I couldn't do it. So... all of this, everything that's happened, is because of me. It's my war now. It has been since then. " He turned back, his gaze turning back to ice. "I'm not that man anymore, Belmont. I'm a monster, just like all the rest."


	5. Taste Test

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sexual tension here, but not super explicit. Yet.

Trevor glared at him. "Monster my ass. You don't want to do this anymore than you did before. What I don't get is why the hell you're pretending you do. So you can make daddy proud?" He scoffed. 

"Could you have done it?" Adrian's smile was cruel. "Everyone thought your parents had gone off the deep end too, did they not? Could you have shoved a spike through his heart? Cut off your father's head because some people didn't like what he did?" The look in Trevor's eyes almost made him relent. He walked to the door instead.

"That was not the same thing and you damn well know it." Trevor growled. He would not let the vampire know how far down that hurt went.

"Right. So it only applies to my family then. Good to know." Adrian tapped a nail against the door. "You're so convinced I'm still that bleeding heart weakling you knew in the woods."

"I know you're not a monster if that's what you mean." Trevor glared. "No matter what kind of fucking show you're putting on for everyone else. You can stop this. You know you can."

"Maybe I could, if I wanted to." Adrian yanked the door open. "Bring me one of the prisoners." He gave the order to one of his guards. "I don't care which." After the guard left he closed the door again. 

"What are you doing?" Trevor's eyes flicked to the door. "What do you want a prisoner for?"

"Food." Adrian shrugged. "What else? If I'm going to have to listen to your whining again I want something decent to drink."

"So you do drink blood. I fucking knew it." Trevor shook his head. "Now what, you're going to feed on some poor bastard to convince me your really a monster?" He scoffed. 

"No. I'm going to chain them up there." Adrian nodded at the manacles. "I'm going to kill them in front of you, and you are going to sit there and watch me do it."

"Why do you care if I believe you or not?" Trevor demanded, trying to keep his heart from pounding too heavily. 

"Because when you do you'll give up this stupid crusade of yours to save the world." Adrian glared. "I'll take you back to your cell in my father's castle and you can fuck Sypha and have little Belmont slaves to populate the farms."

"I am not just going to sit here and watch, Alucard." Trevor stood again, grabbing the bed post to keep his balance. "You kill anybody in front of me then I'm gonna have to stake your ass."

"It's Adrian. I'm not opposing my father now." He ground his teeth a little. "And you will sit there and watch, because if you try to stop me I'll have you carried back to the dungeon and I'll kill ten more down there just for fun."

Someone knocked at the door. Adrian opened it and the guard walked in with a young man in chains and little else stumbling along close behind. This time Adrian let the guard secure the human to the chains attached to the ceiling before leaving. After he was gone Adrian grabbed the prisoner's chin roughly. He found no bite marks on the man's neck. That was good enough. He turned the man around so Trevor could see his face. 

"Please..." The human tried to pull away but couldn't go very far. "I don't wanna die." His eyes caught the hunters. "Help me, please! Don't let him kill me! I-" His words were cut off when Adrian clamped a hand around his mouth. 

"Trevor isn't going to do anything for you." Adrian pulled his head to one side and smiled evilly over at Belmont. "He's just here to watch."

"Don't you fucking do it _Adrian_." Trevor warned. 

"Don't you fucking move, Belmont." Adrian countered. 

The prisoner's eyes went side at the name. His eyes were pleading as he struggled, but he could no more escape Adrian's grasp than he could fly. Adrian sank his teeth into the man's throat and began to feed, but slowly. He drew it out on purpose, letting hormones flood the man's system with the taste of abject terror that slowly began to change into something more sublime. Adrian released his mouth and what came out were no longer pleas for his life but low moans. 

"Do you still want me to stop?" Adrian released his throat and asked loudly enough that he knew Trevor heard. 

"N... no." The prisoner whispered. 

Trevor gaped. "What the fuck? What the hell are you doing to him?"

"Your people thought it was some kind of hypnosis that keeps people coming back to us." Adrian laughed softly. "It's nothing so intricate. Pure lust, Belmont. Simple. Vampires are creatures designed to hunt humans. Our bite triggers the pleasure center of the human brain. Even our bodily fluids are addictive substances. One taste and you're hooked. I didn't escape that part of my father's legacy either."

His victim reached up to pull him back down. Adrian obliged and began sucking again. Trevor swallowed hard. "I'm still not letting you kill him."

"And what are you going to do about it?" Adrian ignored the way the prisoner leaned against him, rubbing against his body. "You have no weapons. No friends. One shout and a dozen guards would be in here holding you down for me."

"Fucking hell!" Trevor shoved his hair back and turned away, but not for long. He couldn't let this happen but Adrian had a point. Without blessed weapons or at least a damn stake he'd have no chance at killing Adrian now. He still wasn't convinced he had to at all, but if he didn't stop this he just might have to try. When he faced them the dhampir was feeding again while his victim writhed in ecstasy against him. "Damn it all Adrian!" He shook his head, ran over and physically pulled trying to separate the two despite knowing he was nowhere near strong enough. He nearly fell on his ass too when Adrian actually moved.

"Trying to take his place?" Adrian laughed derisively. "I told you there is nothing you can do to stop me."

"What about making a bargain?" Trevor asked, glancing at the human. "You said before you wanted more Belmont blood right? What if I offered you mine instead of theirs?"

"I already have yours." Adrian pointed out. 

"Yeah but right now you'd have to knock me out before you took it. You know that." Trevor glared. "You agree not to kill anyone else for blood and... I won't fight it."

"Not going to try and save the whole world that way?" Adrian scoffed. 

"Would you end the war if I did?" Trevor pointed out. "This way I can save some lives while I convince you to end it yourself."

"That will never happen." Adrian shrugged. "Still..." He shouldn't even consider the idea. He knew that. But, he told himself, it would be easier to maintain the human farms if he didn't kill as many prisoners. "Take your shirt off. I may not even like your blood. I'll spare this one for now for a taste and if I like it then you have a deal."

"You need my whole shirt off for a taste?" Trevor scoffed while his heart rate skyrocketed. His ancestors were going to collectively turn over in their graves and cause an earthquake.

"I want your whole shirt off for a taste." Adrian laughed. "And I'm curious to see if you can go through with this."

Trevor narrowed his eyes, but unbuttoned his shirt and slid it off, laying it on the bed. "There. Now what?"

"Now... I have my taste and you try not to come in your pants." Adrian smirked, closing the distance between the two of them. They faced one another straight on for the first time since their journey. A moment later Adrian's sharp fangs pierced the tender skin of Trevor's throat and let out a low moan as the flavor suffused through his body like a drug itself. 

"Oh... fuck." Trevor's voice was softer now, his eyes wide. When Adrian pulled him closer he didn't object. Just closed his eyes and started thinking of every single one of the least sexy things he'd ever encountered in his life. It did nothing to stop the heat curling through his system with every pull at his throat.


	6. Weaknesses

Trevor's eyes had just slid shut when Adrian released him. The dhampir remained close, taking deep breaths that drew in the scent clinging to his skin. Eventually Trevor grew tired of the tension and leaned away, giving him his best impression of an annoyed stare. "Are you going to stand there sniffing me like a dog all night?" He demanded. 

"I might if you keep smelling like that." Adrian teased the wound with the tip of his tongue, earning him a shove from Trevor that did about as much as a push from a feather. He refused to move with that gesture now, prefering to keep him close.

"What happened to complaining about my stinking?" Trevor asked, disentangling himself from Adrian's hold as well as that heavy gaze and retreating to the relative safety of the open floor. 

"The dungeons have not improved that and you'll be having a bath later." Adrian licked his fangs and watched him with a predatory stillness that sent a shiver up Trevor's spine. "But there is more, now. You enjoyed that."

"Like you said, it's a built in response. I didn't have much of a fucking choice." Trevor shrugged. He wasn't about to admit to anything and it didn't matter anyway. It was just a vampire bite thing and had nothing to do with him. "Now are you going to keep your end of the bargain?" He nodded at the prisoner. 

Adrian unhooked the manacles in response and led the prisoner to the door. "Take him back to the cells." He ordered one of the guards standing at attention outside. "And keep the succubi away from him. He's just horny enough to get himself killed by one." The guard walked off with the prisoner in tow, and Adrian shut the door again. "Happy?" He lifted an eyebrow at Trevor. 

"It's a start." The hunter acknowledged and paced a few steps away. "So... what now?"

"What do you mean?" Adrian arched one perfect eyebrow.

"Well you accepted my deal right? So do I stay here or what?" Trevor explained. "I assume I'm not going back to the dungeons. Anybody could come along for a nip then." He adjusted his pants as he walked around the room, trying to disguise the action as much as possible. 

"You'll stay here, yes." Adrian answered, watching him walk somewhat absently. "I may have to lock you up while I'm gone. I can't have you causing trouble with my generals." He emphasised the 'my' to help bring home the point. "I have a meeting with them later today."

"Trouble on the war front?" Trevor laughed without humor. He didn't even try to look anything less than delighted at the idea. Anything that disrupted this damn war could only help him. 

"You could say that." Adrian smiled cruelly. "There's a revolution in Bistrita. Some of the citizens don't like my rule. They've barricaded themselves in a church at last report. The one in charge of that distract was supposed to block all the exits and set fire to it. I want to see if they all burned alive or just the slow ones."

Trevor could feel his heart trying to break out of his chest at that. It wasn't just the people in the church, and he knew Adrian was aware of that. "You bastard." He growled, his hands clenching into fists. One automatically went to his waist but there's nothing there to grab. He feels the loss almost as keenly now as he did when he was getting his ass handed to him the day before.

"One of my forgemasters has told me since I was a small child that love is a weakness." Adrian shrugged and folded his arms, leaning back against the door. "He's right. Those people are long dead now. You'd be better off letting go and forgetting them. It's less painful."

"Maybe I'm just a fucking masochist then." Trevor glared. "I don't want to forget. Not anymore. And that's your fault. Yours and Sypha's. You both made me fucking care about who I was again, and about all the bastards in that church and the ones in your dungeon. You care about them too, Alucard." He emphasised the name. "You know you do."

"I told you am not that person anymore!" Adrian yelled, his eyes blazing before he got himself under control. "Would you like to see how much I care about humanity now?" He marched over to the window and threw it open. "Look. At the courtyard down there." He pointed. 

Suspicious of a trap, Trevor moved in closer to the window. Adrian grabbed him and forced him over. Trevor fought, but only until he saw what was being indicated. "Is that..."

"Trophies. When I finish with the prisoners in my dungeons I put their heads out there to remind me of how many I've killed." Adrian smiled proudly and ignored the sharp pain in his chest. He would not be weak now. Every skull on a pike that filled the courtyard was something to be proud of. Another step closer to being nothing more than a monster in his father's employ. A little more distance between himself and the human half of his heart that made his life nothing but abject misery before he'd decided to rip it out.

"There are over a dozen of them." Trevor remarked, beginning to doubt his own mission. How the hell could the man he'd traveled with for so long have done something like this?

"Yes. I like to draw it out." Adrian finally noticed his hand clawing at his skin over his heart and forced it down. "The last one held out for three weeks before she finally died. I offered to put her out of her misery if she'd kill an old man, a complete stranger to her. He was tied to the rack, completely helpless. When she finally gave in she didn't utter a word. She just dragged herself up on her ruined feet, and shoved the dagger I was holding into his chest. I think she used the last of her energy to do it and when she collapsed I drained her blood. It was beautiful." 

His eyes were wide by now, almost manic by Trevor's estimation. "You're trying to tell me you liked seeing that?" Trevor demanded. "Because you look more like you're trying to convince yourself." Seconds later he shook his head trying to clear the stars from his vision. He wasn't sure how he'd ended up on the floor, until the pain in his jaw finally hit and he realized Adrian had struck him hard enough to send him there. "Doesn't change anything Alucard." He spat and noticed blood on the floor. Not exactly a first so he ignored it.

Adrian had his back to the hunter. He tugged the edges of his jacket, though it was already straight, and smoothed back hair that wasn't out of place. "No, it doesn't. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to be late." He turned back. "Clean that up with something. This is my bedroom, not a pigsty." He sniffed, striding out. 

Trevor heard the click of the lock being turned. "Fuck!" He kicked the wall and pulled himself up. His head was ringing but he didn't have time to sit on his ass any longer. If Adrian was actually the only part of the dhampir left then he needed a plan B. The war was being run from here, so if he took out Adrian then it would go a long way towards stopping it. Something inside of him screamed out at the idea, and he remembered flames again before he pulled his focus back to the present. He needed a weapon for this, something he could hide or get to easily but that wouldn't be noticed before then. He took the room apart piece by piece, searching the bed and the dressers and even the adjoining bathroom looking for anything. The desk was the only thing that offered a better weapon than a mildly itchy dried sponge, but not by much. 

"A fucking letter opener." Trevor swept his hair back and looked skyward. "Christ this is fucking perfect." He examined the little blade, dull and no more than three inches long, and sighed. Then he put it back where he'd found it. No sense drawing attention to it now. It was just about the most pitiful weapon he could imagine anyone trying to kill a vampire with, but knowing it was there offered some comfort despite that.


	7. Mistakes

When Adrian returned hours later, Trevor was sitting in the desk chair, shirt back on and arms folded. The blood he'd spat on the floor earlier remained. Adrian's gaze went from hunter to floor and back, but he chose not to say anything. He could send someone in to clean it up and he was already in a fowl enough mood after the fuckup at the church. 

"Do I have to force you into the tub?" Adrian asked instead. "I swear I could smell you from the hallway."

"Pardon me your lordship but the dungeons don't have very good bathing facilities." Trevor rolled his eyes. 

Since he had a point Adrian narrowed his eyes and ignored the comment. "You could have bathed while I was out, you know. But the tub is big enough for two. At least this way I can make sure you use actual soap."

"There is no way in hell I am sharing a bath with you." Trevor stood and moved to the window. It hadn't actually occurred to him to take it while he had some privacy. His thoughts had been occupied by trying to figure out what the hell to do now that his brilliant plan of telling Alucard he was acting like a dickhead had failed. 

"Unless you enjoy bathing in icy water you will. I'm not wasting resources having it heated twice." Adrian answered coldly. "Actually in this instance I'm not giving you the choice. You'd catch your death trying to bathe in cold water, or skimp on the washing, and frankly you need too much scrubbing to allow that."

"Fuck you." Trevor turned away. "You want to make me care about bathing stop murdering people. I will bathe every day for the rest of my life then." The view here wasn't much better. All he could see was the courtyard and his eyes were drawn to the corpses. They were bloated and mottled looking, but he could tell it wasn't all from being dead. They'd been mutilated long before death claimed them. He swallowed hard and tried not to think too much about what that meant for his own chances.

When Adrian tried to throw him over a shoulder again Trevor lashed out, kicking him in the front and punching him in the back. The angle was bad but he wasn't about to just let himself get carried in. He used his upper arm to hit the back of Adrian's neck, and when he felt himself being dropped experienced a momentary feeling of triumph until he landed with a splash in a sunken pit that presumably acted as a bath.

At least the water was hot. And he was still fully dressed. Trevor decided that counted as a win and waded back until he was sitting on the edge with his arms folded. "I am not washing. You can drop me in here but you can't make me use it." He glared. The effect was ruined when he realized Adrian was busy stripping and blushed. "The fuck are you doing now?"

"It's called undressing." Adrian couldn't resist a little smile ghosting across his features before they hardened again. "Washing with one's clothes on is not an effective way to get clean, Belmont. Do you want me to come over there and strip you myself? Christ, I'm trying to make you wash that stench off so I can breathe around you not asking you to slit someone's throat."

"What the fuck does it matter what I smell like?" Trevor demanded, though he started unbuttoning his shirt anyway. "You're just going to use me as a meal ticket until you decide to carry out your father's order. I'm not going to look any better on a spike in the courtyard if I've got less dirt that the other fucking corpses."

That mental image that flashed through Adrian's mind of Trevor out there among the rest, impaled and lifeless while crows pecked at his flesh, left Adrian's motion stilled, his nails digging into the side of the bathing pit until he forced himself to breathe. His heart pounded in his chest even after he reminded himself that Belmont was only different from the rest because of his bloodline, nothing else. It didn't matter in the end where the human ended up because he was just a slightly tastier version of all the rest. 

"Until I put you out there I don't want you smelling like an outhouse with a dead animal rotting inside." Adrian sniffed and tossed a bar of soap at him. "Use that or I'll use it on you."

Trevor caught it reflexively. "You want me to smell like fucking flowers?" He shook his head and started to put it aside until Adrian began walking towards him. "Okay okay, fine." He started scrubbing quickly, making use of the cloth that followed the soap. Despite his reluctance he had to admit it felt good getting rid of the grime. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd had a bath but he was pretty sure it had been lukewarm and tiny. This was positively luxurious, which just pissed him off more. After a cursory wash he sat them both aside. "There, I'm clean. Can I get dressed now your majesty?" He sneered.

Adrian looked over and gave a long sigh. This time he did close the distance between them and scoop some gel out of a jar. "I swear it's like trying to get a small child to behave." He smeared the stuff over Trevor's hair and the hunter quickly pulled away. 

"What the hell is that?" Trevor tried to wipe it out. 

"It's soap for your hair." Adrian explained. "Just turn around. You really are terrible at this." He scooped up some water to add it to the mess on top of the hunter's head. 

"My hair is fine." Trevor insisted, moving away. "Or it was until you put that shit in it."

"Am I going to have to chain your legs?" Adrian chased after him and grabbed a handful of hair. "Sit still for five fucking minutes Belmont." 

"Not gonna happen." Trevor moved away again as quickly as he could in the water. "I can wash my own hair."

"Clearly you can't or it wouldn't be a wreck now." Adrian pointed out. He suddenly found himself trying not to laugh when he pointed at the top of the hunter's head. He failed and burst out laughing for a moment before he got it under control. "Just use your fingers. Work it into the hair and rinse it out."

Trevor put his hand up there and felt the gel on top of his admittedly greasy hair and sighed. He started working it in finally. "Better?"

"Keep going. You missed some spots." Adrian pointed to his own head. The hunter took care of the spots he pointed out. "That's better. Now rinse it. Just duck underwater. It's easier that way." He suggested, applying some soap to his own locks. His would take considerably longer than Trevor's relatively short head of hair but it needed it more too. 

While Adrian was occupied Trevor ducked under the water quickly. He got the soap out and stood back up, not really trusting the dhampir. It killed whatever good mood he'd started to feel thinking of that. He couldn't trust Alucard now. It hurt to remind himself of that but it had to be said. He left the bath and grabbed a towel, drying himself quickly. 

"Don't put the old clothes back on." Adrian stopped him as he was reaching for them. "There'll be fresh clothes outside. I think your old things may have to be burned."

"Don't you fucking dare." Trevor snapped. "They may be disgusting but they're mine and they're my last ones."

For a moment Adrian considered having them burned anyway. The look on Trevor's face made him relent even as he chastised himself for feeling anything as human as compassion. "Throw them with mine then. They'll be washed and returned." He waved a hand and continued tending to his hair. 

Somewhat reluctantly, Trevor moved them and left with the towel around his waist. He found two sets of clean clothes on the bed outside. There was no fucking way he was wearing that fancy lacy shirt. He pulled on the pants and that was bad enough. They were soft and clean, and they made him feel like he was almost human again. He would have thrown them out if the alternative wasn't nudity that could invite biting.

Shortly after, Adrian left the bath and came out without bothering to wrap himself in his towel. He noticed Trevor standing at the window again. "I take it you don't like the wardrobe choice?" He questioned. "I assume you aren't asking me to bite you again by forgoing the shirt."

"That thing would rip the second I stared at you too hard." Trevor shrugged. "And I mean because I want to hunt you not anything else." He would not let himself blush at the idea of being bitten again. "Although now that you mention it I'm curious. How often do you plan to do that?"

"Whenever I feel like it." Adrian answered, pulling on his own pants and a clean V necked shirt. He left the jacket for now and walked over to the window. "I would have thought you'd hate this view."

Trevor moved to the side slightly. "What I hate is what's become of you." He turned to regard the dhampir. "How can you live with it? Knowing what you did to them? What is happening outside these castle walls to the people you tried to protect with me once? How the hell can you just turn off the humanity in you?"

Adrian smiled a little. "I cut it out a little at a time." His smile grew, became a wide grin. "It's nearly gone now I think." 

"You're wrong you know." Trevor pointed out. "I'm still alive. So is Sypha. If it was gone you'd have killed us both. But you can't, can you? You can't because there's still part of you that's human and that means you can still come back." He put a hand on Adrian's shoulder. "You can still be Alucard again. Please... stop this thing now. Just put an end to it. You know you could."

While he spoke Adrian began to tremble. Everything he'd done that day in this room came back to haunt him. He should have had Trevor sent back to the dungeons. Should have killed the prisoner earlier. Barring that, Trevor himself should have been chained in those manacles to await his hunger. And he should have had those clothes fucking burned. He looked at Trevor's hand on his shoulder and something flared inside him. 

"I am not." Adrian grabbed his hand. "Fucking. Human, Belmont!" He shouted, shoving the man away. He followed and pinned him by the wrist against the desk. Trevor's free hand punched him in the face and then shoved at his chest when that didn't work. "I never will be!" He yelled, his eyes flashing red and his fangs lengthening. Before he even knew what he was doing he'd buried his fangs in Trevor's throat and he was gulping the blood down like his existence hinged on draining every drop. 

Trevor's kicking increased and he scrambled at the desk. When his fingers closed on the letter opener he jammed it into Adrian's chest over the heart. Adrian staggered back, pain shocking him as blood bubbled around the wound. Trevor clutched the tear at his throat trying to stop the bleeding and backed away while Adrian pawed the metal in his chest. It came out and Adrian threw it out the window.

"Too fucking short Belmont." He snarled and launched himself at the hunter. Trevor caught him and the two of them crashed to the floor. Adrian's nails, now lengthened into claws, flashed as he drove them into the hunter's flesh. Trevor's scream drove him to bite again, and again until the sound stopped.


	8. Regrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for not updating! I suffered an injury that's had me in constant pain for two months now. I was hoping it would be a quick fix but the universe hates me. So I am attempting to pick the story back up where I left it. Please blame my pain medication for any inconsistencies. :P To anyone still watching this story, I LOVE YOU!

Adrian’s legs trembled as he backed away from the bloody mess he’d left his former friend. Trevor’s heart was still beating but weakly, and he’d seen enough men die now that he knew it wouldn’t continue for much longer. The dhampir’s wide eyes were drawn to the wounds he’d inflicted, bites that covered his body and claw marks. His own heart pounded harder than it had since he was a small child, and somewhere inside he remembered the first time he’d hurt someone he cared about. 

He’d barely been old enough to speak at the time, and his mother had taken him out to the garden on the castle’s rooftop. She grew herbs here that otherwise couldn’t be found within hundreds of miles of her clinic. There were flowers too of course, incongruous though they were with the rest of the castle.

Adrian had found a pretty flower in the garden and plucked it. He was about to try and eat it when his mother shouted. She’d frightened him, and he could remember clutching the flower even tighter when she tried to take it away. He hadn’t understood how poisonous it was, nor her fear that he could be hurt or even killed if he tasted it. He’d lashed out and cut her hand badly with his claws then.

Most of all he remembered her weeping, though she’d tried to play it off as nothing. He’d seen her tears and the way his father looked at him when he’d ported up to the tower at her cry. Neither had shown anger to him, but Adrian just remembered bursting into tears. He’d never meant to hurt her, and it had taken him weeks to get over the guilt. 

Now he stared down at Trevor, watching him slowly dying, and the guilt returned. Not just for this attack, but for his mother and everyone he’d injured in between. Tears came to his eyes and flowed down his cheeks while he sobbed. Faces flew through his memory. After he’d hurt his mother he’d always taken extra care with humans. He’d hurt no one who didn’t attack him first, and he’d never killed. Not until he and Sypha and Trevor had been forced to fight against his father. 

The vampires, the generals especially, that they’d cut down had been people he’d known since childhood. When he was small he’d attended a court meeting or two, just for a few minutes. He’d watched a lot more from the railings and balconies. The faces rarely changed, and then only to add to their number. He’d learned them all, and practiced his manners dealing with them. Killing them on the way to his father had only been possible because he cut himself off from that part of himself that remembered it all and simply refused to think at all beyond their goal of saving humanity.

He couldn’t do that anymore. Trevor and Sypha were the first real friends he’d ever had. They were the first people outside his parents he’d spent any time with, and the only ones close to his age.

And now a man he would have given his life to save lay dying on his own bedroom floor, by his hand. 

“I didn’t mean it.” He whispered, one hand clawing his chest. “I didn’t mean it, I didn’t!” Adrian shouted as he returned to his friend’s side. “Don’t go!” He lifted his wrist to his lips but hesitated. If he did this the man would never forgive him, and that was assuming it even worked. He was only half vampire. For all he knew his blood wouldn’t be enough. 

Only one other option presented itself. He would try, he decided, and if it didn’t work then at least Trevor would be alive to condemn him to hell. Adrian had no idea if Sypha was even still in the dungeons, but he had to give it a chance. He picked Trevor up and ran fast as thought outside the bedroom, through the mirror, and into his father’s castle.


	9. Bargaining

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am in fact still alive! o.0 Also still injured but I'm hoping that in the next few weeks I can finally begin taking steps to fix this on a more permanent basis. Meanwhile I was able to update finally, woo! I will try to get back on a more regular schedule. I can't apologize enough for the delays!

By this point the entire castle was well aware of who Adrian was. The sight of him running through the hall with a human in his arms was enough to draw some strange looks, but nobody tried to stop him when he passed by the dungeon's gatekeepers. Staircase after staircase took him ever downward, much further than the castle itself seemed able to go. 

Near the end of these winding corridors, in one of the deepest parts of Castlevania, Sypha remained chained by magic-infused manacles to one wall. When Adrian arrived she jumped up, staring at the two of them. Her heart clenched at the sight of Trevor's still form. "Adrian, what did you do?"

"He's still alive, but barely." Adrian informed her. "I... I know you don't like me and that's fine but I need you to heal him, Sypha. He's dying. I can't... I can't let him die."

Sypha ran to the bars at started forming a symbol with her hands, but stopped halfway. "Why?"

"What?" Adrian asked, utterly confused. "Why did you stop?"

"Why do you want me to heal him?" Sypha asked, her own heart pounding as she tried to focus on Adrian instead of her friend. "You're trying to kill all of humanity, right? So why do you want me to heal this one? You let us stay imprisoned down here like the rest. Why not let him die like them too? He's only human, and living as a human in this world you're making is not a good reason to help."

"Sypha! Please!" Adrian hated the pleading in hiss voice but he couldn't help it.

"Give me a reason to help him!" Sypha shouted. "Show me there's still a reason to hope! If you are following your father and will never be persuaded to aide humanity again then what is the point?!"

Casting his eyes around, Adrian could see nothing to give him a clue how to respond. The place was bare, devoid of anything but the cell itself, the filth from their cell and others, and a couple buckets. "I'll bring you something! Whatever you want! Beds!"

"You honestly think that is going to convince me? She put her hands on her hips. "Are you really that far gone that you think a comfortable bed would make me want to keep living?"

"No! Fuck!" Adrian fell to the floor still cradling Trevor carefully. "I don't know what to do, Sypha. What do you want? You have to tell me because right now I've got no fucking clue what to do about anything."

"Let us go. Trevor and me." She answered. "I know you can get me out of these chains. There must be a way out of this dungeon besides the main gate. The guards go away from it when they clean the pots, but they can't just be emptying them onto the floor somewhere."

Adrian followed her gaze and then closed his eyes, leaning over Trevor. The man's heart was slowing. Within minutes Trevor was going to die and the Belmonts would become completely extinct forever. Once again he thought about turning Trevor, about what it would do to him as well as what he would do when he woke in such a state.

"Fine." Adrian answered, looking up again to meet her eyes. "Save his life and I'll let both of you go. Trevor knows where there's a human rebellion going. I suggest you join them. They're doing the best out of all the groups resisting us..."

Almost before he'd finished explaining Sypha lifted her arms and began sketching runes again. A wave of magic flowed between her fingers and Trevor's body. He began to glow softly, at least to Adrian's eyes, and the surface wounds, at least, began to close. 

The sight made tears slip down Adrian's cheeks. Some part of him insisted that he ought to stop this, finish Trevor off and send Sypha to join him. That part was quieter than it had been in months, and he ignored it in favor of overwhelming relief.


End file.
